Hi, I'm Willow Belden and you're listening to Out There, the podcast that explores big questions through intimate stories outdoors.

On today's episode, we have a special guest story from Sarah Fox, who produces a podcast called Here in the Gorge.

The story is about what happens when something

goes terribly wrong in the outdoors.

We often imagine that it's the hardcore outdoors people

who end up getting hurt or killed in the wilderness.

People who go to the extremes and take big risks.

But a lot of backcountry accidents happen to regular people, like you and me,

who are just out for a quick hike or camping trip. Sarah brings us the story of an accident

that happened to a little boy in Oregon, and she introduces us to the fascinating group of

people who showed up to try and help. They're a group called the

crag rats, and they're the oldest mountain search and rescue team in the U.S. They are the people

who get called when someone gets hurt in places that ambulances can't get to. We'll play you

the story in a few minutes, but first, I wanted to chat briefly with Sarah and give you a sneak peek into the podcast she hosts.

As I mentioned, her show is called Here in the Gorge, and it's where a version of today's story first aired.

So, first of all, Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

So tell me a little bit about here in the gorge. So I live in this area called the, well, we call it

the gorge for short, but it's the Columbia River Gorge. So we're an hour east of Portland. And it's,

it's sort of known as an outdoor playground. So a lot of people come here to explore the outdoors,

you know, whitewater kayaking and skiing and mountain climbing.

We've got Mount Hood right here.

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